The Pilot Sport range has earned a solid reputation, especially for its most versatile version which until now was the Pilot Sport 3, a tyre available on the market since 2010.

To ensure continuity, the PS4 goes even further than its predecessor offering significant progress in several areas, mainly thanks to Michelin’s experience in racing.

Driving pleasure

Logically, the Pilot Sport 4 places the emphasis on driving sensations and pure efficiency. For this, its structure features a reinforced belt to keep any tyre deformation to a minimum and, as a result, improves driving precision, dynamic response and of course, the level of pure grip.

The PS4 is a tyre designed to equip passenger cars. As such, it must deliver an excellent level of safety in all weather conditions. Its new tread compound has been developed with this in mind, just like its wide grooves providing efficient water evacuation.

However, the brief presentation did not provide any further information about this new Michelin tyre. We hope to compare it with other reference tyres in the high performance segment in the near future to truly evaluate its potential. Let’s hope it achieves its efficiency.

Availability

The Pilot Sport 4 will be available on the market in January 2016, and initially, only in 17- and 18-inch sizes. New sizes will be available later, and in particular, 19-inch sizes.

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Michelin Pilot Sport 4 - First Drive

With the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 officially going on sale at the start of 2016, but not launching to the press until later in the year, we were keen to get some miles on a set to answer the miriad of questions already appearing in our inbox.

The solution? Our long term Skoda Octavia VRS, which fortunately wears one of the launch sizies - 225/40 R18. Four tyres and 500 miles later, we're able to give our first impressions of the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4.

The History

Before we get to the driving details, it's worth understanding how the Pilot Sport 4 is being positioned. The Pilot Sport 3 wasn't the direct successor to the Pilot Sport 2, that was actually replaced by the Pilot Super Sport, but instead the Pilot Sport 3 actually slotted in between the Pilot Exalto 2 and Pilot Super Sport, aiming more at the hot hatch market, and moving the balance towards wet grip and comfort.

The Pilot Sport 4 builds on the success of the Pilot Super Sport, plus also takes lessons Michelin have learnt as the sole tyre supplier for the Formula E series, meaning the new Pilot Sport 4 is once again more inline with the "Pilot Sport" ethos. Think of it as a brother to the Pilot Super Sport, and a cousin of the Pilot Sport 3.

The First Drive

The new Skoda Octavia VRS has a torquey turbocharged engine, delivering 227 bhp and 258 lb-ft torque through the front wheels. This leads to a challenging job for the front tyres, but allows us to quickly get a good impression of how the new tyre performs.

Less than a mile out of the tyre garage, the improvement over the OE fitment Continental Sport Contact 2s were apparent. On the cold greasy roads where the old tyres would spin up in a straight line in second gear, and sometimes even in third, the new Michelins had no such problems. This made exiting junctions, or making progress around roundabouts a much safer, more predictable and faster experience.

The overly stiff VRS chassis also highlighted another big plus of the tyre, comfort. The Michelins were noticeably quieter, and crashed far less over road imperfections at all speeds. One trade of comfort is often steering feel and speed, and while the Michelins were slightly slower to turn than the old tyres, and offered slightly less feel, it seemed like a more sensible compromise for the VRS chassis.

Longer Term

Now we've got a few more miles on them we're still just as impressed. Grip is improved in all conditions, the balance of the car is still neutral with a preference for understeer when really pushed, and wear looks to be non existent after 500 miles.

We'll keep an eye on fuel economy and wear over the coming months, but as always, feel free to leave your own review if you were lucky enough to get one of the early sets of tyres!

===========================================================================I am looking for another word other than "disgusting" to describe 4.62 minion but bcos I neber pass my PSLE, the only word I know is "KNNBCBB"

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PS4 had been sold here for months, anyone has any firsthand reviews?
It is known to be a step down from PSS and cousin of PS3.
I am looking at this for my next change as PSS don't have 17 inch here. Currently on comfort-based tyres (gr100), now wanna go for performance tyres.

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What happened? I tot the F1 A3 are good tyres?

They suck balls. The side wall is super weak that when you enter corners, they do not give you any confidence what so ever. Bad choice getting them solely based on price and their supposedly good wet grip. You save about 60-70 bucks per tire but you enter into a year or two of being fed up with them. Once you have used Michelin PSS, there isn't really any tire that can compete in terms of being a tire that is good in everything. The F1 A3s are not worth paying 200+ dollars for especially when they are not even made in germany but slovakia. KNNCCB. They are more like comfort tires which you can get for half the price. The sidewall looks ugly as well. People who say that they are good probably haven't used Michelin before.